"The relations between South Korea and China have become the worst ever," Lee Jae-myung, the left-leaning presidential candidate leading public opinion polls, said in remarks to The New York Times.

Millions of South Koreans are voting for a new president in a snap election triggered by the ouster of Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative who faces a criminal trial over his short-lived imposition of marti...

Lee, 60, the Democratic Party candidate, was the driving force behind an opposition-led campaign to oust Yoon, whose Dec. 3 marital law decree plunged South Korea into turmoil.